“Is there any thing wrong about her?” asked Mrs. Brainard, curiously.
“I am afraid she has stolen my child!” said Mr. Dainty, his manner growing excited.
“Stolen your child!” Mrs. Brainard became pale and agitated, and her eyes turned toward a little girl, not seven years old, who at the moment entered the room. She reached out her hand, and the child drew to her side. The moment Mrs. Brainard’s arm could be thrown around the little one, she clasped her eagerly, as if she felt that she had just escaped impending danger.
“If you can aid me in tracing her,” said Mr. Dainty, “you will confer the highest benefit.”
Mrs. Brainard left the room, and returned in a little while with the chambermaid, who thought Mrs. Jeckyl went to a house in Fifth Street near Noble. The name of the person who kept the house she did not remember. This was all the chambermaid could tell. The waiter was questioned, but from him nothing was elicited.
“How did this woman conduct herself while in your house?” asked Mr. Dainty.
“She made herself very offensive to most of my boarders, and gained a singular influence over two of them,—ladies, who were invalids and had been suffering for years with nervous complaints. She is a woman of masculine intellect, sir. Few men are her equal in an argument. Her satire is withering.”
“So I should infer from the little I saw of her. You speak of her influence over two ladies in your family. How was this obtained?”
“In what I regard as a very disorderly way. Mrs. Jeckyl is a ‘medium,’ as it is called.”
“A mesmerist,” said Mr. Dainty.